Sergey Suslin


Sergey Suslin was a Soviet judoka and sambist. He competed in the men's lightweight event at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He retired from the competition in 1972 shortly after the Olympics.

Criminal activity and conviction

Since 1977, he worked as stuntman at the Lenfilm studio, playing minor roles in several Soviet action film. While there, together with other athletes who were employed as stuntmen at the Lenfilm, he took part in robberies and other criminal acts. In 1981, he was arrested and sentenced to 9 years in prison for the murder of his wife. He was released in 1989. He died the same year in Moscow after suffering a heart attack.
According to Nikolai Vashchilin, a USSR Master of Sports in Sambo, the future President of Russia Vladimir Putin and his childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg were associates with the gang of Suslin and the “Jap” in the early 1970s. Suslin's case in the archives is still classified. Novadays, a memorial judo sports tournament is being held in his honor.